Contrast paragraph

A contrast paragraph examines the differences between two things or people. To help you write a good contrast paragraph, you can make an outline in the following format:

OUTLINE

Topic sentence: Plants and animals are different in three ways.


Conclusion: Although they are different, both are amazing creatures.


Based on the outline, it is easier for you to write a contrast paragraph. There are two ways of writing the paragraph. One of them is using this pattern (let's call it Pattern A):

Plants, movement - animals, movement
Plants, food production - animals, food production
Plants, cell walls - animals, cell walls

Another way of writing it is (let's call it Pattern B) as follows:

Plants, movement, food production, cell walls
Animals, movement, food production, cell walls

PARAGRAPH

Below is an example of a paragraph written using Pattern A.

Plants and animals are different in three ways. First, plants stand still and cannot move anywhere, while animals are mobile. Second, plants can produce their own food by using photosynthesis, whereas animals cannot do this and have to find food. Finally, plants have cell walls, but none of animals do. To conclude, although they are different, both are amazing creatures.

Below is an example of a paragraph written using Pattern B.

Plants and animals are different in three ways. Plants stand still and cannot move anywhere. They can produce their own food by using photosynthesis. They also have cell walls. On the other hand, animals are mobile so that they can find food to eat. They do not have cell walls. To conclude, although they are different, both are amazing creatures.

To write a good contrast paragraph, you should use conjunctions and sentence connectors that show contrast. The examples of conjunctions and sentence connectors are highlighted using brown fonts in the above two paragraphs. Here is a list of useful conjunctions and sentence connectors.

Conjunctions
Betty is cheerful, while George is grumpy.
Betty is cheerful, whereas George is grumpy.
Betty is cheerful, but George is grumpy.

Sentence connectors
Betty is cheerful. However, George is grumpy.
Betty is cheerful. On the other hand, George is grumpy.
Betty is cheerful. In contrast, George is grumpy.

Writing: Assignment 1

Please write an expository paragraph consisting of 150 words. The topic of the paragraph is:

The causes of silence among students in the classroom

Write at least 3 causes and explain each of them. To help you write the paragraph more systematically, make an outline beforehand. For example:

Outline

Topic sentence: There are three causes of cross-cultural misunderstanding
Supporting sentences:
1. People think that their native culture is more superior than other cultures.
2. People do not see any need to study other cultures.
3. People lack tolerance toward differences.
Concluding sentence: To avoid cross-cultural misunderstanding, people should know the causes and try to overcome them.



Next, develop the outline into a complete paragraph by inserting sentence connectors such as first, second, finally, etc. You can learn more about sentence connectors by reading Understanding and Using English Grammar written by Betty Azar.

Please send your outline and paragraph by email before Saturday evening, 20 November 2010.

Reading: Doomsday & the Mayan Calendar

Some of you are interested in having a copy of the reading text we discussed this morning in the Intensive English class. The text was actually taken from the Newsweek magazine. You could read the full article here:

Beliefwatch 12/21/12

Types of texts

There are four types of texts.

Narrative texts
Purpose: to tell a story.
Example:
Last week I had an accident. On Thursday afternoon I was in a bus. The bus stopped to give way to a crossing car. Suddenly, there was a truck behind the bus which failed to stop. The truck hit the bus.

Descriptive texts
Purpose: to describe someone or something.
Example:
The lecturer has a water bottle. The bottle has a green lid. It is made of glass. It contains water which is half full. The bottom of the bottle is not flat, but it is a little bit curved. On the whole, the bottle looks old.
(Please note: the first sentence is the topic sentence, while the last sentence is the conclusion.)

Expository texts
Purpose: to give information or explain something.
Example:
There are four types of scales in statistics. The first one is nominal scale. It is a number which is used to label things. For example, in a questionnaire the number 1 is used to label male, while the number 2 is used to label female. Second, ordinal scale is used to show ranks, for example, first, second, third, and so on. Third, interval scale is useful to indicate a number which has equal interval from one unit to another, such as temperature or scores. The last one is ratio scale. It is similar to the interval scale, but the difference is absolute zero. Absolute zero means that zero equals to nothing or no one. The examples are weight, height, length, distance, etc. Before analyzing numeric data, it is better to determine the appropriate types of scales first.

Argumentative texts
Purpose: to state an opinion
Example:
In my opinion, English should be taught as early as possible, such as in kindergartens. Children are good language learners. They have better brain plasticity so learning a new language is much easier for them. In addition, children are less self-conscious than adults. They are not easily ashamed or offended if someone points out their language errors. In conclusion, children should learn English at an early age.

Introduction

This blog was created for students of Science and Mathematics at Dual Degree Program, Graduate School, Universitas Negeri Surabaya. It will be a useful forum for me and the students to maintain contact while they are taking "English" course this semester.

Learning materials, assignments, and announcements will be posted here.